This NASA map, based on satellite data, shows the new record-low summer sea ice extent of 1.58 million square miles in the Arctic Ocean, as recorded on August 26. The amount of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean at the end of summer is now 45 percent lower than the average from 1979 to 2000. The black dot represents the region surrounding the North Pole. (NASA) – link

This graph, prepared by the University of Washington’s Pan Arctic Ice Ocean Model Assimilation System (PIOMAS) shows the precipitous drop in the volume of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Since this graph was prepared, PIOMAS estimates that the volume of sea ice in the Arctic has fallen farther, to 3,500 cubic kilometers — a decline of 72 percent compared to the average from 1979 to 2010. (Polar Science Center/Applied Physics Laboratory/University of Washington) – link

Looking around at those… around me – family, friends, acquaintances and random faces in the crowd of apathy – the level of complacency is so concentrated I can taste it, yet I can’t even describe how bad it tastes. I’m not really talking about the understanding people lack about the numerous predicaments we face as a species – that’s definitely there too… but what I’m talking about is even worse. It’s the assumption that we can just go about our day to day lives, doing our day to day work, having our day to day fun… and humanity will eventually heal itself, no matter how bad the injuries sustained.

This is a cultural phenomenon that has infested the Western world, and refuses to be eradicated. It is where many of us ultimately place our hope and stake our lives, sometimes without even realizing we are doing it. We previously discussed the entertainment enemas that have penetrated modern culture (and the lives of deluded teenagers) in Culturally Programmed Myths of Omnipotence. They have given us the vision that we can always become bigger, “better” and stronger as individuals and nations, evolving towards God-like glory, no matter what obstacles are in our way – all of the stories about superheroes, vampires, werewolves, wizards, robots and aliens – it’s all about the propaganda of pernicious power.

We even see this mentality taking root in academia and scientific research through the field of “transhumanism” (very well portrayed in the documentary, TechnoCalyps). As you can probably guess from the name, transhumanism tells us that we are on the way to becoming something more, something other, than human beings. Forget random mutation and natural selection, the transhumanist says – we can circumvent all of the slow evolutionary nonsense that we only theorized about a century ago. Now we can transform ourselves into a new species over the course of a few decades with the help of modern technology and “intelligent designers”. Just a little bit ironic, don’t you think?…

Surfing the net last night, I see Guy McPherson is trying to pierce the self-delusional bubble described above, but to no avail…

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About xraymike79

I'm a social critic, political/cultural commentator and artist. The modern industrial world is on the cusp of great changes to our current unsustainable way of life. Most people are oblivious to the paradigm shift that will occur, but some are starting to awaken to the fact that the future will not resemble the halcyon days of the last half century in America as evidenced by the OWS movement. My objective is to highlight important news stories and find the truth that is hidden behind what Joe Bageant called the American Hologram.
www.collapseofindustrialcivilization.com

Link is here, and I’ve posted a response to the first idiot, but not the author. Both are clueless, as nearly as I can tell. They believe perspective is based in wishful thinking. As they’re about to discover, nature bats last.

Jason’s blog was not the first time I mistakenly attributed unvarnished perception to a thoughtful, skilled essayist. Before that was Paul Gilding, and the archdruid. Of course we’re all a little crazy, what the French called, c’est la guerre.

There was nothing wrong with your response. As a matter of fact, it was the correct response to Jason Heppenstall’s essay. But forgive him for falling into delusional optimism. It’s a coping mechanism to deal with the stress/conflict of what we have done to the Earth and ourselves.

Climate change and man’s impending extinction are not hard to understand:

“If we keep doing what we’re now doing, we are screwed. This we know now.”

That’s the rhetoric at its core.

Roberts’ conclusion: “To stabilize temperature, global climate emissions must peak within 5-10 years and decline rapidly every year thereafter.” Last I looked, no such option was even in the planning stages for my November 2012 voter ballot — in fact, practically nobody in American society is even TALKING about such a plan. – link

Few can without erasing themselves from the surface of the planet. A global state of emergency would need to be declared, with only essential use of fossil fuels while we transitioned to some other living arrangement. All wealth would need to be seized by governments for the benefit of everyone. A lot of draconian measures would need to be instituted.
None of this will happen, at least not in favor of you or me. We’ll muddle along while the elite capitalists protect their wealth by strengthening the security and surveillance state and carrying out harsh austerity measures on the rest of humanity. Breakdowns in the food system brought on by the extreme weather of climate change and our decaying fossil fuel-based industrial agriculture will bring further social and geopolitical instability, revolutions, wars, and government crackdowns. I imagine countries will throw massive resources into geoengineering once they realize how bad things are getting. Industrial civilization will suffer a violent and chaotic death. Climate change and peak oil are two sides of the same coin which will bring life as we know it to an end if we don’t act yesterday.

John Michael Greer cracks me up. His answer to climate change is to move to higher ground:

“…if the news from Arctic waters in the months and years to come suggests that things are moving in the wrong direction, and those of my readers who live close to the shores of the northern Atlantic basin happen to have the opportunity to move inland or to higher ground, it might not be unreasonable to do so.”

That’s a truly stupid comment from Greer, which is expected from somebody with his knowledge … er, ignorance … about climate change. The issue is not solely rise of sea level. Instead, as the U.N. advisory group on greenhouse gases pointed out in 1990, beyond 1 C there might be “rapid, unpredictable and non-linear responses that could lead to extensive ecosystem damage.”

Done. Put a fork in us.

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